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FOUR
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
JULY 30, 194'J
SulUIttt
The Official Organ of the Catholic Laymen’s
Association of Georgia, Incorporated.
HUGH KINCHLEY, Editor
216-217 Southern Finance Building, Augusta, Ga.
ASSOCIATION OFFICER FOR 1948-1949
FRED WIGGINS, Albany President
M. J. CALLAHAN, Maeon
Honorary Vice-President
HUGH GRADY, Savannah Vice-President
J. B. McCALLUM, Atlanta Secretary
MARSHALL WELLBORN, Rome Treasurer
HUGH KINCHLEY, Augusta .Executive Secretary
MISS CECILE FERRY, Augusta Financial Secretary
A. M. McAULIFFE, Augusta Auditor
VOL. XXX, JULY 30, 1949 No. 7
entered ae second close cnstlec June U. 1»*1 at the
Poet Office at Aiyrueta. Georgia. under fha Act of March
3. 1878. accepted for malting at sported rote of Hostage
provided tn paragraph t section 538, Portal Laws and
Bcgiilattona w modified he paragraph »
Member of N C. W C News Service. Religious News
Service, the Catholic Press Association of the United
States, the Georgia Press Association, and Use National
Briitorisl Association .
Published monthly by the Cathode U/am'i Aaaoctatioa
of Georgia Inc., with the Approbation of the Meat Rev-
eeend Bishops of Charleston and Savannah-Atlanta, and
at tbs Right Hnveeend Abbot-Ordinary of Balmont.
A 1
St. Diary’s Home, Savannah
P i A number of years The Bulletin has dedi
cated annually a special edition to St. Mary’s
Home in Savannah. Last year, because of the
shortage of newsprint, it was not possible to pub
lish all of the available data on St. Mary’s Home in
the July number, so the St. Mary’s Home edition
overflowed into the August number.
Again this year, because the annual meeting
of the Female Orphan Benevolent Society, which
operates St. Mary’s Home, has had to be post
poned on account of the illness of John W. Glea
son, K. S. G., vice-president of the Society, and
the entended absenc from Savannah of Monsignor
T. James McNamara, secretary-treasurer of the
Society, some of the reports qnd other data in
regard to St. Mary’? are not available, which
will make it necessary for The Bulletin to publish
a supplement to its St. Mary’s Home edition next
month.
The purpose of these special editions is to
arouse throughout the Diocese of Savannah-At-
lanta a wider interest in St. Mary’s Home, in or
der that the Catholics of Georgia may, in in
creasing numbers, cooperate with the Sisters of
Mercy in carrying on the benigh service which
was begun by other Sisters of Mercy in Savannah,
more than a century ago.
It was in 1845 that Father Jeremiah F. O Neill,
at that time pastor of St. John the Baptist Church,
in Savannah, placed about a dozen orphaned chil
dren in the care of the Sisters of Mercy, who
in June of that year had come from Charleston
to Savannah to establish St. Vincent Convent.
That was five years before the Diocese of
Savannah was erected, and Georgia was then a
part of the Diocese of Charleston, which had been
created in 1820. The Sisters of Mercy who es
tablished the first community of religious in
Georgia, being members of the Order which had
been founded by Bishop John England of Char
leston, in 1829.
With generous charity, these Sisters of Mercy
continued, for thirty years, to care devotedly for
the children placed in their charge, supporting
them out of their own meagre income, and through
occasional small contributions from a few bene
factors. .
The people of Savannah then came to realiz
ing that the Sisters who were devoting their lives
to the care of the orphans should not also be
burdened with the task of providing the funds to
support them, organized the Female Orphan
Benevolent Society at the direction of the Right
Reverend William H, Gross, C. SS. R., then Bishop
of Savannah.
Through the generosity of Captain Henry
Blua, the land where St. Thomas Vocational School
now stands in Savannah, was secured as a site
for the first St. Mary’s Home. Additions were
made to the home as the years passed which
doubled the capacity of the home, which in 1906
became a Diocesan instead of merely a local in
stitution.
One of Bishop Gerald P. O’Hara’s first projects
after coming to the Diocese of Savannah was to
plan for the erection of a modern building, a
new St. Mary’s Home, and three years later, His
Excellency had the happiness of dedicating the
present St. Mary’s Home, which stands framed
in towering pines on a knoll overlooking Savan
nah's beautiful Victory Drive.
No recognition of the Silver Jubilee of Bishop
O'Hara’s ordination to the pxiesthood, which he
cerebrated four years ago, could have been more
pleasing to him than the presentation to him of
an ornamental parchment scroll testifying that the
$40,000 unpaid balance of the cost of the new St.
Mary’s Home had been paid in full.
As has been said, St Mary’s Home was made
a Diocesan institution in 1906, and while it is locat
ed in Savannah, children from any part of Georgia
will find a welcome there, so the burden of love
of supporting St. Mary’s Home, and the girls who
are cared for there by the good Sisters of Mercy,
is one in which Georgia Catholics from other
places than Savannah should assume a larger share
than is shown by the membership roll which is
published elsewhere in these pages.
The Female Orphan Benevolent Society is
most modest in the amount which it asks as a
membership fee, $3.00 a year. Every Catholic
in Georgia who is not already a member of the
Society, and who can affot-d to pay the twenty-
five cents a month dues, should enroll as a mem
ber of the Society.
To simplify enrollment, a form of applica
tion for membership may be found on these
pages. It can be filled out and sent to St. Mary’s
Home. The dues may be paid with the applica
tion or to one of the collectors for St. Mary's Home
who serve in many places in Georgia.
It is hoped that when The Bulletin publishes
hi 1950 edition dedicated to St. Mary’s' Home, that
the membership list will contain many more
than it lists this year.
Democracy or Discrimination?
LL OF the discussion, ail of the controversy,
all of the contention in regard to the pas
sage by the Congress of the United States
of legislation designed to give Federal aid to edu
cation might be dissolved down to the question
as to whether principles of democracy or prin
ciples of discrimination shall be the basis for Fed
eral Aid hills.
In May, the Senate passed and sent to the
House of Representatives the Thomas Federal Aid
to Education Bill, which would grant $300,000,000
to the States for the purpose of giving to the
pupils of tax-supported schools better opportunity
for adquate education, but which would guarantee
nothing for children who attended parochial or
other non-public schools. It is true that the
Thomas Bill leaves the inclusion of aid to paro
chial and private school students to the various
States, but as the laws of but few of the States
permit the extension of aid to the pupils of non
public schools, Catholic leaders hold that the bill
adopted by the Senate actually bars such aid.
To make it even more sure that no child at
tending a parochial or private school would de
rive any benefit from the expenditure of Federal
funds for educational aid, a bill, designed, designat
ed H. R. 4643, sponsored by Representative Gra
ham Barden of North Carolina, prohibits the use
of Federal funds for such purposes as health
or transportation services for either public or non
public school pupils.
Both the Senate and House bills count in chil
dren attending non-public schools as a basis for*
the minimum award of funds to a State, but both
bills count them out when it comes to receiving bene
fits.
Spokesmen on behalf of the pupils attending
Catholic schools who have appeared at Congres
sional committee hearings on Federal aid to edu
cation legislation, have not contended that the
Federal government should grant any funds for
the building or any Catholic school, nor for the
payment of the salary of any teacher in any Cath
olic school.
What American Catholics are striving to do is
not to secure government aid for Catholic schools,
but to insist that children be not deprived of the
benefits of Federal legislation for no other reason
than their failure to attend public schools.
There is no united Catholic opposition to the
Federal aid to education program as such, many
Catholics favor the Federal government’s distribu
tion of aid to the schools of the nation on the basis
of need, if it can be done in a way that will in
sure against the danger of Federal control of
education, and in a way which will not impose
an unfair burden on Catholic federal taxpayers,
or discriminate against the children of those par
ents who evercise the right, recognized by the
Supreme Court of the United States, the right of
every American citizen, to give his children an
education that is in accord with, his conscience.
A news dispatch from Washington, dated last
Saturday, quotes Representative Barden as ex
pressing fear that the controversy aroused by the
bill lie introduced will endanger the approval of
the Federal aid to education program by congress.
On Monday, a sub-committee of the House of
Representatives approved legislation which would
premit the use of $35,000,000 in Federal health
funds for private as well as public school pupils.
This is in line with the Thomas health bill,
already approved by the Senate, but there is still
no legislation which would give to non-public
school pupils any benefits in the way of transpor
tation or free non-religious textbooks.
Many Catholics throughout the country as in
dividuals or as officials or organizations, have writ
ten letters to their Senators and Representatives
protesting the passage of measures which contain
provisions which discriminate against children be
cause they do not attend tax-supported schools.
The issue is still alive even if Representative
Barden is now doubting that his bill will be vot
ed into law; even if the Senate has already pass
ed the Thomas bill.
If members of the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives receive a sufficient number of com
munications, asking for the passage of legislation
which at least will not deprive any American child
of benefits that are given any other American
then, perhaps, the Federal education bills finally
adopted will have at least a measure of fairness.
It is most important to stress that we are not
asking aid for Catholic schools, but for personal
seryiees for American children, regardless of what
school they attend. Ask your Senators and your
Representatives to vote for democracy in Federal
aid to education and to vote against discrimina
tion.
Dixie Musings
Mother Frances Borgia, of the
Salesian Order, who was the
Countess of de Aldama before she
became a Religious, has died in Se
ville, Spain. Her death recalls the
unusual history of the noted Al-
dama family, all of whose members
entered the religious life.
Mother Frances Borgia is sur
vived by her husband, who entered
the Society of Jesus after the cou
ple had agreed to separate in or
der to follow religious vocations.
He celebrated his first Mass in the
same convent where his wife died.
Two daughters of Mother Fran
ces Borgia had meanwhile entered
the Order of the Handmaids of
Jesus, while he" three sons had
become Jesuits. One of the sons,
Father Antonio M. de Aldama, is at
present the Secretary General of
the Society of Jesus in Rome.
In taking the name of St. Fran
ces Borgia when she entered the
religious life, the former countess
was evidently inspired by the fact
that this noted Spanish Saint be
came a Jesuit after the death of
his wife, and in time became the
third General 'of the Society of
Jesus.
Father John F. Brown, C. S. V.,
youngest superior of the American
province of the Clerics of St. Via
tor, has been inducted into office
at the headquarters of the commu
nity in Chicago, with th« Very Rev
erend Lucien Page, Viatorian Su
perior-General, presiding at the
ceremony.
A priest for only eleven years,
Father Brown was born on a farm
near Champaign, Illinois. He grad
uated from tlie University of Illi
nois and taught in the public school
system before joining the Viato-
rians in 1930. His study of theology
was made at the Catholic Univer
sity of America, in Washington,
and he took a graduate degree in
political science. He was ordained
at the National Shrine of the Im
maculate Conception in 1938.
After his ordination, Father
Brown taught at St. Ambrose Col
lege, Davenport, Iowa; served as di
rector of Viatorian religious stu
dents, and was head of the Cathe-
dray Boys’ High School in Spring-
field, Illinois, when called to his
present post.
There are 180 Viatorian priests
and brothers in the United States.
Members teach at the Catholic Uni
versity of America, Loyola and De
Paul in Chicago; Marquette, Barat
College of the Sacred Heart, Lake
Forest, Illinois, ana other collegs.
They are engaged in parochial
work and have missions in China
and Japan.
The Clerics of St. Viator came
to the Diocese of Savannah-Atlan-
ta in 1938 at the invitation of Bish
op Gerald P. O’Hara, and have
since that time conducted St.
Thomas Vocational School which
was established in Savannah in that
year.
Judeo-Christian concept of free
dom of will in man as a grace of
God, unaffected by mundane en
vironmental circumstance. Man
possesses inalienable rights not by
grant from government, but by the
grace of God.”
A period of relaxation granted
to the men who attended the Re
treat at St. Joseph's Home, Wash
ington, Georgia, last week-end,
was featured by a baseball game
between a team composed of the
retreatants, with Bob Arthur, of
Athens, as the pitcher, and the St.
Joseph’s boys’ nine, which had
Vernon Hearn, of Augusta, doing
the pitching.
According to the rules of base
ball, the captain of the home team
is the sole judge of the fitness of
the grounds for play before the
start of a game, and the captain of
the St. Joseph’s team and his play
ers were so determined to play
that it is believed he would have
okeyed the field for play even if
it had been two-feet under water
instead of just being under a slight
layer of mud and spotted with
puddles of water.
Anyhow, the game was played,
and Hearn’s pitching coupled with
several slip-ups by his team’s op-
ponents in their fielding, gave the
boys a win by a 3 to 1 score.
A statement by Franklin D.
Roosevelt praising the public serv
ice done by Catholic schools, and
statements by George Washington,
Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jeffer
son, Theodore Roosevelt and Cal
vin Coolidge stressing the import
ance of religion as a basis for good
citizenship were recalled by Our
Sunday Visitor, National Catholic
Action weekly published in Hun
tington, Indiana, in an issue devot
ed to the Federal Aid to Education
question.
The quotation from President
Roosevelt, which was from a mes
sage he sent to the National Con
ference of Church Related Col
leges, was as follows:
“If the Catholic schools prepare
youth for better citizenship; if our
country will be immensely benefit
ed by a character formation built
on the ternal principles of religion
and morality, then they are ren
dering a public service, and since
these schools are not operated for
profit, they are in reality public
schools.”
A
Father Conlin
DEVOTED priest of God, Father James H.
Conlin, was called to his eternal reward
this month, just after he had begun his twen
ty-fifth year of priestly service in Georgia.
Quiet in manner, retiring and unassuming in
nature, Father Conlin had patiently accepted a
long period of ill health with never a complaint.
His death followed a sudden and brief spell of
illness which made his death somewhat of a shock,
as he had appeared to be in better than usual
health for some months and had been able to
spend a number of hours each day serving in the
capacity of vice-chancellor of the Diocese of Sa-
vannah-Atlanta while continuing his ministry as
chaplain at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Savannah.
Father Conlin had served as assistant at the
Cathedral in Savannah, and at St. Anthony’s Church,
in Atlanta, and had held temporary assignments
as administrator of the Sacred Heart Church in
Mitledgeville and the Church of the Holy Family
in Columbus.
For three years he was pastor of St. Anthony’s
in Atlanta, and for two years pastor of the Bless
ed Sacrament Church in Savannah. Because of
his health, he asked to be relieved of the burden
of pastoral duty in 1941, and since that time
had been serving as the chaplain of St. Joseph’s
Hospital.
Father Conlin’s many friends throughout the
Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta mourn in sorrow the
cherished friendship of the amiable, kindly priest
who was highly regarded by all who knew him.
Many prayers will be offered that perpetual light
may shine upon him, and that Prince of Priests
who called him tn the altar, will summon him
to the Eternal Altar where the Triune God is
worshipped in the glory of the Beatific Vision.
A dispatch from Dallas, Texas,
dated July 11, released by Reli
gious News Service , states that
with the cooperation of two Dallas
churches, two new school districts
for the city’s public school chil
dren will begin operations next
fall. The churches have agreed to
rent rooms to the school district
until permanent buildings can be
constructed, which will take at
least two years. According to the
RNS news release, the Lancaster
Avenue Methodist Church, in Dal
las, voted to rent seven rooms,
while the Cedar Crest Baptist
Church promised the use of twelve
rooms.
It is not known whether or not
the forces which were aroused over
the threat to the principle of sep
aration of Church and State when
Catholic Church property was
rented by the public school system
in New Mexico have also protested
the use of church-owned property
by the public school system in
Texas.
Three hundred years ago a band
of fierce Iroquois Indians descend
ed on the Jesuit missions of Huron-
ia, martyred four Jesuits and set
the stage for the martyrdom of a
fifth. That move by some 1,500
Iroquois warriors also spelled the
doom of the Hurons as a nation.
Recently descendents of the
fierce Iroquois returned to the
scene where there now stands the
internationally known shrine creat
ed to the memory of Saints Jean
de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant
and fellow Jesuits now honored
among the Saints.
This time tlie Iroquois came
back as Catholics to honor the
memory of those martyrs at a
shrine which today is under the
care of modern-day Jesuits.
This time they were headed not
by blood-thirsty chiefs, but by a
priest — Father Michael Jacobs,
himself a Jesuit and an Iroquois.
He spoke to his people from the
Indian reservation of Caughnawaga
near Montreal, who had come in
pilgrimage, in their ovm Mohawk
tongue.
In solemn procession the In
dians marched to the church in full
regalia including feathered head
dress and buckskins. Two stalwart
Mohawk chiefs firmly clasped the
arms of the Very Rev. John Swain,
Jesuit Provincial, in token captivity
-as they entered the shrine church.
They escorted him to the chancel
rail, where they released him.
Father Swain proceeded to the
altar and spoke to the pilgrims of
the significance of the occasion.
—H. K.
George E. Sokolsky, whose col
umn, ‘‘These Days,” is a feature of
the editorial department of The
Savannah Evening Press and other
newspapers in this area, recently
devoted his column to answering
the question: “Is God Dead?” . .
In one paragraph Mr. Sokolsky
wrote: “If there is a God, a reveal
ed truth,, a moral law, then man
has a soul which is his by grace of
God. This doctrine was brilliantly
developed by Moses Maimonides, a
Jewish philosopher, and by Thomas
Aquinas, a Christian philosopher,
and found its way into the political
concepts of this country through
the writings of Thomas Jefferson,
who was influenced by Father Bel-
larmine, a French Jesuit. The doc
trine of the ‘inalienable rights of
tlie individual,’ which is the es
sence of American civilization, is
a political manifestatiea of Ute
An Explanation
Due to the postponement of
the annual meeting of the Fe
male Orphan Benevolent Socie
ty, under the auspices of which
St. Mary’s Home in Savannah,
Georgia, is conducted by the
Sisters of Mercy, it is not pos
sible to publish all of the an
nual reports of the Society
which should appear iu this
month’s edition of The Bulle
tin.
These reports, along with some
advertisements, the copy for
which reached The Bulletin of
fice too late for insertion in
this issue, will appear in the
August number.